Affirmative action for women in Iraq

Iraqi Minister for the Environment Narmin Othman, at a women’s conference in Ramadi, 29 March 2008. Othman is one of the few women in Iraq who has reached the post of Minister. Photo by: Cpl. Erin A. Kirk

A recent Human Rights Watch report outlines ways in which women’s rights became more limited in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.  According to the report, women had a better place in politics and society during the 1970s than at present.  Similarly, an article in yesterday’s New York Times explains how the current struggle for power in the political arena has curtailed women’s rights despite a 25% quota for women in parliament.  Some people think there should be a quota for women in the ministries as well, while others feel women are not qualified or do not belong in politics.

In social psychology research, the study of attitudes about affirmative action has expanded to include gender inequality.  A survey study conducted by Boechmann and Feather (2007) examined attitudes about affirmative action for women in Australia.  For male participants, they found that unfair male advantage was negatively associated with a belief in women’s entitlement to affirmative action. However, when men’s perceptions of personal responsibility and guilt were entered into the model, unfair male advantage was positively related to women’s entitlement and deservingness.

In Iraq, efforts to secure more basic human rights for women might be advanced not just by pushing for more quotas but also by complimentary efforts to increase civic-mindedness and awareness among men.

Boeckmann, R. J. & Feather, N. T. (2007). Gender, discrimination beliefs, group-based guilt, and responses to affirmative action for Australia women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31, 290 – 304.

Iraqi women feel shunted despite election quota by Michael S. Schimdt and Yasir Ghazi, published March 12, 2011

At a crossroads: Human rights in Iraq eight years after the US-led invasion, Human Rights Watch, February 2, 2011.  See Section I. Rights of women and girls

‘Your Jedi mind tricks will not work on me!’

The film ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’, which is currently on general release, tells the story of a fictional division of ‘psychic-warriors’ within the United States (US) military.

Whilst clearly a tongue-in-cheek portrayal, it is evident from the original book that much of the film is based on actual happenings, such as the MK-ULTRA project, or the controversial recent involvement of US military psychologists in interrogation and torture.

Such military involvement in psychology is apparent even within classic social psychological studies such as Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment, which was funded by the US Office of Naval Research.

Whilst the ‘feel-good’ moral of the film is that belief is perhaps more important than any true abilities, such a suggestion can be seen as somewhat more questionable when human lives are at stake.

This is highlighted by the widespread use at military checkpoints within Iraq of a dubious explosives detection device that is accused of working solely “on the same principle as a Ouija board — the power of suggestion”. Although this ‘hi-tech dowsing-rod’ apparently functions effectively for its usual operators, third-parties find themselves unable to replicate this.

Although explainable as a “lack of training”, this can also be viewed as a consequence of ‘expectation bias’, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Within experimental psychology the dangers of such a phenomenon were clearly illustrated by Rosenthal, who found that researchers obtained different results for ‘maze-bright’ and ‘maze-dull’ rats, despite these labels having been randomly assigned.

Film review from the Guardian

Book review from the Guardian

Strohmetz, D. B. (2008). Research Artifacts and the Social Psychology of Psychological Experiments

Lord, C. G. & Taylor, C. A. (2009). Biased Assimilation: Effects of Assumptions and Expectations on the Interpretation of New Evidence

Ouch! Is this what asylum feels like?

Uday Hattem al-Ghanimi represents a growing population of Iraqis who have sought political asylum and resettled in the United States after the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003. However, as the New York Times reported on Thursday, like many accomplished immigrants from other countries, Uday and his family have not been met with the welcome and opportunity for which they had hoped or were led to expect. With the wounds of war still tender, Iraqis are struggling to support themselves and their families as they face alienation in the job market and ostracism from society.

A social psychological perspective of the Iraqi experience in the United States elucidates the hardships that Iraqis are facing. Williams (1997, 2007) emphasized the profound negative effects of ostracism on individuals. Five minutes of ostracism due to exclusion from a ball-tossing game resulted in decreased self-esteem and feelings of helplessness, among other negative outcomes. Such negative outcomes are exacerbated with long-term ostracism. Williams notes that the effects of ostracism are initially felt much like physical pain, possibly reflecting overlapping neural circuitry. It seems Iraqis may have traded potential pain due to warfare for certain pain due to ostracism.

The New York Times: Iraqi Immigrants Face Lonely Struggle in U.S.

Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism: The kiss of social death.

Serious games

The latest instalment of the popular America’s Army (AA3) video-game series has recently been released to widespread acclaim. Whilst there are many similar ‘first-person shooters’ currently available, AA3 is unusual in that it is downloadable at no cost since it was developed by the United States (US) military as a recruitment tool.

This reflects an increasing use of combat video-games with ulterior motives, both by the world’s military as well as by those politically opposed to conflict. Indeed, the US army now has a dedicated hi-tech public-relations centre where the wider general public can experience such games for themselves. Since the use of video-games can be seen as specifically targeting children, however, this recruitment strategy has been fiercely criticised as unethical.

Such condemnation raises a number of important questions as to the social role of video-games. For example, the fundamental morality of trivialising an issue as serious as war by treating it as mere entertainment is highly debatable. This is particularly the case as such games rarely attempt to depict the suffering and human cost that is an inevitable consequence of military action, thereby sanitising the true horrors of war. The social consequences of such portrayals of violence within video-games have previously been the subject of much discussion.

Furthermore, a growing number of these games are based on ‘real’ rather than fantasy scenarios, and so can often be seen as rewriting history by presenting a simple dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, rather than accurately portraying the complex uncertainties faced by combatants during the actual fighting they claim to represent.

Alternatively, such games could be viewed as useful educational simulations that question the morality of war itself by giving a player the opportunity to experience a historical conflict from the perspectives of all the different parties involved.

Such issues have been the topic of recent heated debate surrounding the announcement and subsequent abrupt cancellation of a video-game based on the controversial battle for Fallujah.

‘America’s Army’ official website

‘US Army Experience Center’ official website

‘Six Days in Fallujah’ press release from Konami

Cancellation of ‘Six Days in Fallujah’ from the Guardian

Li, Z. (2003).The Potential of America’s Army the Video Game as Civilian-Military Public Sphere

Baldwin, M. W. & Dandeneau, S. D. (2009). Putting Social Psychology into Serious Games